Guy Coburn Robson facts for kids

Guy Coburn Robson (born in 1888, died in 1945) was a British scientist who studied animals, especially molluscs. Molluscs are a group of soft-bodied animals like snails, clams, and octopuses. Robson is famous for being the first person to name and describe the colossal squid.

Robson studied marine life at a special station in Naples, Italy. In 1911, he started working at the Natural History Museum in London. He later became the Deputy Keeper of the Zoology Department from 1931 to 1936.

Understanding Evolution

Robson is best known for his important book called The Variations of Animals in Nature, which he wrote with O. W. Richards in 1936. This book talked about evolution, which is the process where living things change over many generations.

Robson and Richards believed that evolution definitely happens. However, they felt that the exact ways how animals change were not fully proven. They also thought that many differences between animal groups were not caused by something called natural selection.

Natural Selection Explained

Natural selection is a big idea in evolution. It means that animals with traits that help them survive better in their environment are more likely to live and have babies. These helpful traits then get passed on to their offspring. Over time, this can lead to big changes in a species.

Robson and Richards' book was published before many new ideas about evolution became popular. They questioned how big a role natural selection played. Some scientists, like Mark Ridley, noted that Robson and Richards believed many differences between species were not due to natural selection.

Later, after the 1940s, their book was seen differently because it seemed to argue against natural selection. However, before the work of scientists like Julian Huxley and Ernst Mayr, it was considered a very well-known book about how animals are classified. Julian Huxley, in his own book Evolution: The Modern Synthesis (1942), said that Robson and Richards' book made natural selection seem less important than it really was in evolution.

Named After Him

To honor Guy Robson's important work in science, several marine (sea) species have been named after him. This is called "eponymy."

• Abralia robsoni Grimpe, 1931
• genus Robsonella W. Adam, 1938
• Onykia robsoni (Adam, 1962)
• Amphioctopus robsoni (Adam, 1941)
• Opisthoteuthis robsoni O'Shea, 1999
• Uroteuthis (Photololigo) robsoni (Alexeyev, 1992)
• Digitosepia robsoni (Massy, 1927)

His Books and Writings

Guy Coburn Robson wrote several books and guides during his career:

• Guide to the Mollusca exhibited in the Zoological Department, British Museum (1923) - This was a guide to the mollusc collection at the British Museum.
• The Species Problem (1926) - This book explored the challenges of defining what a "species" is.
• A Monograph of the Recent Cephalopoda. Based on the collections in the British Museum, Natural History (two volumes, 1929–1932) - This was a detailed study of modern cephalopods (like squids and octopuses) based on museum collections.
• The Variation of Animals in Nature (with O. W. Richards) (1936) - His most famous work, discussing animal variation and evolution.

A Quote from Robson

Here is a famous quote from Robson's book The Variation of Animals in Nature, showing his thoughts on natural selection:

"In short, we do not believe that Natural Selection can be disregarded as a possible factor in evolution. Nevertheless, there is so little positive evidence in its favour, so much that appears to tell against it, and so much that is as yet inconclusive, that we have no right to assign to it the main causative role in evolution." (The Variation of Animals in Nature, 1936)